Quick Answers Suggestions & TODOs

The purpose of this tip/trick is to provide regular feedback on the progress of the Quick Answers system with respect to new requests, suggestions & TODOs.

Please post any new suggestions or ideas in the forum below where it can be reviewed by other members and staff. If it passes this process it'll be folded into this post where you can track it's progress.

Comments and Discussions

It looks like it is just used to fill up the space. Not suggesting anything instead of that and this is not even remotely a bug. I just got to see that first time today so brought to your notice. It is lying under "My Posts" link.

"No matter how many fish in the sea; it will be so empty without me." - From song "Without me" by Eminem

I am sorry I have never worked with UI. But I seriously feel that "Got a Question? Get a Quick Answer." is out of place. It seems it is merely a filler with no real purpose. I may be wrong I can blame my no UI experience for that. I would be happy if someone can explain why that text is there on the mentioned location.

Sorry for not being clear. I hope I am now.

"No matter how many fish in the sea; it will be so empty without me." - From song "Without me" by Eminem

Check out this question. I think everybody (including the author) can agree that it should be deleted. However, I think there is a rule that says any question having 3 or more answers cannot be deleted. While this seems like a good idea most of the time, there should be a way to delete these questions that are of little value. Here is one way to enable that...

When there are 3+ answers, replace the "Delete" button with a "Vote to Delete" button. Once the number of votes is high enough (higher than the number of answers?), take some action. Perhaps just delete the question. Or maybe send a notification on the CP staff that they should decide whether to delete it or not. Or maybe the rank of a user (gold, platinum, etc.) gives them the ability to finalize the delete (i.e., the above question would require 3+ votes to delete and one of them would have to be by a platinum member or two would have to be by a gold member). Anyway, there's a bunch of ways that could work, but it seems like there should be some sort of automation to get rid of those questions.

We do have a task to implement a "Vote to delete" feature. And we're considering some automation around it as well. Though we also have flagging capability already implemented - just like for regular articles. It's at the top of the view page of a question next to Print, Share, Bookmark etc.

I've experienced several occasions where I post and answer, and the OP has been required to respond in some way to correct an ambiguity in their question, or ask for more details. Every time so far they have responded by posting their own Answer to their own Question.

Perhaps it could be made clearer where comments and additional info can be posted (in the forum part at the bottom). It might also be nice to have a direct reply button on each Answer, (that possibly created a post in the forum below that was linked in some way).

Also so extra email notification on changes and new messages. For example if I post an answer to a question, it would be good to know if the OP (or anyone I suppose) posts a message in the forum, as that post may often be an additional question related to my answer. Perhaps the ability to reply directly to answers would assist this.

[For example - see this question[^] where (at the time of writing) the OP has posted several responses as answers despite my message in the forum to indicate otherwise]

So.. there's nothing wrong with posting an answer to your own question as long as it's actually an answer to the question. E.g.:
Q: "When was generics introduced to C#"
A: ".NET 2.0"

But clarifications and dicusions about the question or any answers should be accomplished via the discussion board at the bottom.

What's we're planning to do is attach a discussion board to each answer in addition to the question. It will be placed directly beneath the question/answer instead of at the bottom of the page. We'll try and make this as clear as possible and when it should be used.

We'll also be implementing a subscription mechanism that will allow you to follow questions for which you have answered.